


Post Night Shift Care

by the_only_education_worth_having



Series: Requested Fics [47]
Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: Angst, Comfort, Crying, Established Relationship, F/M, Failed Care, Gen, ICU, Intensive care, Love, M/M, Medicine, Patient death, Punishment, request, upset
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:00:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27402385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_only_education_worth_having/pseuds/the_only_education_worth_having
Summary: You have a patient that needs attention, Derek helps where he can.
Relationships: Derek Shepherd/Reader, Derek Shepherd/You
Series: Requested Fics [47]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/937128
Kudos: 8





	Post Night Shift Care

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr Request @ferryboatstho  
> Yo omg u should so write a derek shepherd x reader fic! Do you mind writing one where he's super sweet and takes care of you at the hospital while you're on a long shift? Would love to read it :D

‘I don’t care what you want or how you feel. You got this patient into this mess and you are going to sit with them until they’re better,’ Bailey said, though she was shorter than you she still felt like she was towering above you when she got serious, ‘until they’re at least well enough not to be in the ICU you are going to care for them at every turn and make every single decision that needs to be made.’ ‘But Bailey-’ you tried to interject with plausible reasons not to babysit a patient forever but she threw up a finger and stopped your words in their tracks. ‘No buts. I don’t want to see another intern, a resident, a nurse or anyone near this patient. Their fate is in your hands. Maybe then you’ll take your assignments seriously and not shrug off other people’s concerns,’ she said with a tut before she exited the ICU room through t’s automatic door leaving you alone with only the beeps of the machines and the forced respirations the ventilator was providing your patient. 

You sighed and threw yourself into the chair in the corner of the room grumbling about the reasons you shouldn’t be taken off of the floor. You knew you had messed up. The patient was a man in his 30s who had come in with alcoholic pancreatitis. He had been in for days and days. Always whining about the doctors and the nurses. He wanted pain killers all the time but you had caught him outside chain-smoking countless times. You hadn’t paid him much attention. When the nurses paged you had put him as your lowest priority to respond as you knew he was only going to ask for something inane and keep you stranded for an hour. When they had paged you about him having a high heart rate you had glanced at his chart and seeing it was always high you had shrugged it off. You had been paged about him having a temperature you had sighed and told them to carry on with antibiotics.

It had been the wrong call. He had been seriously unwell, his pancreatitis was much worse than expected. His blood results had shown that before the rest of the symptoms started but you had put them to the back of your list because of your own personal views. His organs were failing and you hadn’t caught it meaning he was now in intensive care, ventilated and circling the drain because of your failings You knew you had messed up. Bailey and the chief had not failed to let you know it but it wasn’t enough that you understood for some reason she had insisted to the chief you should be forced to work solely with this patient. He had agreed. 

So you were stuck in this room for the next few days. You had to make every decision and implement all of his care. You sighed and got to work. You worked on updating everything for about half an hour. The patient was repositioned. The ventilator checked and settings amended. The charts were updated and medications were given. You were stuck. There was nothing to do. It was a slow day. You had only one solace. Derek. 

You hadn’t been home since yesterday and had only seen him briefly in the on-call room where you had explained your situation. He wasn’t as outraged as you had hoped, the teacher in him understood Bailey’s motivations but he was sympathetic about your punishment as much as he could be. He popped in around hour five. You were thrilled to see him even if it was just so you could nip out for a pee. You had been waiting for almost an hour for one of the nurses to be free to relieve you from your duty for a moment. 

‘So,’ Derek said as you returned from the bathroom, ‘how are you holding up?’ ‘I’m okay,’ you shrugged, sitting on the stool beside the chair he was sat in. ‘Are you still bitter about it?’ he chuckled, ‘because that’ll get you nowhere.’ ‘I’m not bitter,’ you said, rolling your eyes. ‘Yeah sure,’ he laughed, ‘well I got you something to cheer you up anyway.’ ‘You did?’ you asked as he produced two coffee cups and a bagel from your favourite coffee cart. ‘Your favourite,’ he said as he handed them over with a smile. You smiled giddily as you took them off of him hearing your stomach grumble as you did. The two of you chatted as you ate and drank his treats with Derek asking for an update on the case to see whatever help he could give you for when Bailey rounded in the morning. He was explaining an experimental treatment he’d heard about for organ failure and pancreatitis back in New York. You were just wiping cream cheese from your chin as Derek’s face changed and he leapt up looking at the monitor. The patient was crashing. They leapt into action as help came from outside. It was a flurry of activity for around 20 minutes before the patient’s vitals resolved and got back to something that was almost okay. 

Y/N sighed as people started exiting the room leaving just her and Derek once more. ‘You okay?’ he said as you perused the patient’s chart wondering what could have been missed. ‘Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just gonna look over his chart for a while, see what I need to do,’ you said, not looking up. Derek smiled and nodded patting you on the back before he left you to it. You poured over the chart trying to find out why your patient was getting worse despite all of your efforts. You were trying so hard to correct his problems but every time you solved one another one popped up. 

After a couple of hours, Derek popped his head in once more to see how you were doing. You didn’t look up as he entered, pouring over a book intently. ‘Any luck?’ he said. ‘Not yet,’ you sighed rubbing your tired eyes. ‘You want me to stay tonight?’ he said and you looked up at his face that was watching you with concern. ‘No it’s okay,’ you said, ‘besides one of us should get a good night’s sleep tonight.’ ‘Okay, I’ll see you in the morning,’ he said leaning down to kiss you on the top of your head and you reached up and stroked the side of his face for just a moment before going back to your book. He slipped out quietly. 

In the morning Derek returned bright-eyed with coffee and pastries ready to have breakfast before starting rounds. He dressed in his scrubs and made his way up to the ICU. He rounded the corner to the room but found it empty. The bed was made but there was no patient in the bed. The equipment was pushed back into the corner of the room, sterilised. Derek sighed, this wasn’t good. He went to the nurses’ station and asked around trying to find his girl. After a couple of misdirections, he found her in the on-call room. She was lay in the bed, the bedclothes gathered up around her face, tucking her in. ‘Hey,’ he said sadly and she looked up with a sad smile. ‘Not good huh?’ he said sitting on the bed beside her placing the coffee and the bag of bagels on the small table beside them. ‘Nope,’ she said sitting up and leaning into him as he pulled her into the crux of his arm. 

‘What happened?’ he asked. ‘He wasn’t responding to anything. He was maxed out on everything and it just didn’t work. His liver was already failing, his kidneys were shot and then one by one everything followed. I killed him.’ ‘You didn’t kill him. You tried everything you could,’ Derek said stroking your back sympathetically. He couldn’t see your face but he could feel the dampness on his shoulder as you started to cry. ‘I should’ve tried harder in the first place. I should’ve listened to the nurses I should've-’ you started to ramble but Derek pulled your head off his shoulder. He wiped your eyes dry and smiled, ‘sometimes it can’t be helped. And maybe you should have listened to the nurses but will you do it again? No. Will you prioritise your patients or push those you don’t like to the back of your list? No. Because you know better now.’ ‘Bailey might have been right,’ you smiled weakly. ‘Bailey knows what she’s doing. She’s been there. We all have and it’s a hard lesson to learn, how not to let grudges come between us.’ ‘He really was hard work you now,’ you said. ‘People are,’ Derek chuckled, ‘that’s not gonna change. Sometimes you have to instead.’ ‘I hate having you around sometimes. With your words of wisdom,’ you said, flopping down onto the bed and throwing your arm across your eyes. ‘Hey, at least I bring coffee,’ he chuckled leaning down to kiss you on the lips. 


End file.
